Monodispersed nanorod-shaped Mn-Co co-doped ZnO nanoparticles for enhanced photocatalytic and antibacterial activities
Abstract
The present work deals with synthesizing the pure ZnO (PZ), manganese-doped ZnO (MZ), and manganese-cobalt co-doped ZnO (MCZ) nanoparticles by hydrothermal method. X-ray diffraction confirms their hexagonal wurtzite structure with varying crystallite sizes: 43.8 nm for PZ, 34.6 nm for MZ, and 27.6 nm for MCZ. The band gap values were calculated as 3.14 eV (PZ), 3.09 eV (MZ), and 2.89 eV (MCZ) from Tauc plot. FTIR analysis provided the evidence of metal-oxygen bonds and other characteristic functionalities. These nanoparticles exhibited potent antibacterial activity against both gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus) and gramnegative (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria. In photocatalytic performance of MCZ has showed a higher rate of Crystal Violet dye degradation under visible light irradiation compared to other materials.
